are bees important? – MRC Festival Zone 2019

Shobhana Nagraj answered on 7 Jun 2019:

Yes! Hugely important! Bees are amazing… They not only have amazing lives – they know flight paths back to their hive that can go on for miles, they know how to dance, and they make perfectly formed hexagonal honeycomb in hives, but they are the most important means of pollinating all our crops and making sure there is enough food for humans to eat. We would probably die without them! You can read more here if you re interested: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zg4dwmn

Kaitlin Wade answered on 7 Jun 2019:

They’re super important. They’re part of the network of living things that each rely one one another. If bees go extinct, then everything that relies on them – mainly, the pollination of flowers – would be forever ruined! We need to do everything we can to make sure that bees, and other animals, do not die out if we can.

Kate Timms answered on 7 Jun 2019:

They’re super important! Without bees we would be in serious trouble. They help to pollinate the world’s crops. Without them and other pollinators, we would have to artificially pollinate plants to be able to grow food.
They’re also kind of incredible. Because of the way bee genetics work, they’re more closely related to their sisters than they would be to any children they could have. This means that to ensure their genes get passed on, the best way to do this is to make sure their sisters survive! This is one of the reasons they are prepared to die to defend their nest.
They also have super fast metabolisms so they need to drink lots of nectar all the time. Which is why we need to make sure when we plant our gardens that there are flowers that bees can drink nectar from.

Rebecca Moon answered on 7 Jun 2019:

An absolute necessity. As others have said above they are vital for pollination. A friend of mine at university did his PhD on bees, and then worked for a while for the bumblebee conservation trust. Here’s there website if you want to find out more about bees https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/

Nina Rzechorzek answered on 7 Jun 2019:

Yes! Not only are they stunningly beautiful, they are indispensable for pollination. Without bees and other invertebrates, the world’s ecosystems would collapse, and we (as well as many other species) would not survive. We think they’re so important that our institution has some hives on the roof and the famous LMBee is our mascot! You can find out more at LMBees Blog here:

Life at the LMB

Bugs generally are incredibly important – if you want find out more, this website has some great information:
https://www.buglife.org.uk

A good friend of mine (another vet and bug enthusiast) has recently completed an amazing endurance event (ENTOdurance) to help raise money for bug conservation in the UK – you can find out about what he did and why (and some stunning photos he has taken of bugs) here:

https://twitter.com/hashtag/ENTOdurance?src=hash
https://www.facebook.com/ENTOdurance/

Bees and other bugs are facing many tough challenges, not least the impact of climate change – so we need to do all we can to save them.

Rachel Hardy answered on 7 Jun 2019:

Yes, bees are extremely important! They pollinate the majority of crops that we eventually eat (e.g. apples, strawberries). This is good for us (providing us with lots of yummy food), as well as the economy. If the number of bees were to severely decline, this would push the price of food up for us (as far fewer crops would be pollinated). Did you know that bees also pollinate a lot of different tree types? Trees and crops are also valuable foods for lots of wildlife. Therefore, fewer bees would have a huge impact on all stages of a food-chain. As well as all of this, bees are wonderful aspects of our countryside and landscape. Being such important parts of our natural world, we need to protect bees the best we can. They are in decline for a number of reasons (pesticide use and climate change being a few). Did you know that if you see a bee struggling (e.g. in your garden or on a pavement), these are often just tired, and not dying as you might expect. Giving them an energy boost may just be enough to send the bee happily flying on its way again. You can do this by simply mixing sugar with water, and putting it onto a teaspoon (not too much as this will drown the bee!). Gently let the bee move onto the teaspoon, and hopefully it will fly away. Read more here about how to properly help a tired bee 🙂 http://moralfibres.co.uk/how-to-revive-tired-bees/

Shonna Johnston answered on 8 Jun 2019:

Bees are incredibly important to the ecosystem. I read a really interesting crime novel recently and the importance of bees was the crucial link.
We like to plant flowers in our garden to attract and support the local bee populations.

Thiloka Ratnaike answered on 9 Jun 2019:

Yes, extremely important! I love a bit of gardening and we are very keen to allow our garden to have as many wildflowers as possible to attract bees which are essential to our ecosystem!

Matthew Bareford answered on 10 Jun 2019:

Bee’s are hugely important! They are the largest pollinator of food crops, so without Bee’s we would have less food crops, which means less food to feed the worlds population….

As David Attenborough himself has said:

“humans will only have four years to live should bees become extinct”….

This is why in our university, we keep Bee’s in hives on top of our building, where they have a safe space for their hive and we can help boost the population

David Wilson answered on 10 Jun 2019:

Everyone else has answered this one really well. I’ll just say that they are, I spend a few moments over the weekend watching Bees feeding on the flowers in my garden, it’s fascinating to watch this up close.

Anabel Martinez Lyons answered on 10 Jun 2019:

There are many reasons why bees (particularly honey bees) are vital for survival of life on earth – here is a pretty good summary https://friendsoftheearth.uk/bees/why-do-we-need-bees. 🐝

Question: are bees important?

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